On January 27, the meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council was held at the OSCE Headquarters. The extension of the mandate of the OSCE Yerevan Office was included in the agenda of the meeting.
In his remarks Clemens Koja, Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Austria, outlined that throughout the discussions on the extension of mandate of the OSCE Yerevan Office one participating state, in particularly meaning Azerbaijan, expressed a concern that the humanitarian demining programme of the Office is not in line with its mandate.
It was recalled that the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairmanship made an assessment of this issue on spot in the framework of his visit to Yerevan and concluded that the above-mentioned programme does not fall outside the mandate of the Office. The Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council emphasized that both the previous German Chairmanship, and current Austrian Chairmanship share this assessment.
The Chairman of the OSCE Permanent Council expressed his regret that even under these circumstances the decision on the extension of the mandate of Yerevan Office is delayed. He outlined that this threatens to have a detrimental impact on the whole activity of the OSCE.
Read also
As a way out of this situation the OSCE Chairmanship urged the Yerevan Office to abstain from the implementation of the humanitarian demining programme. He also emphasized that all the other programmes of the Yerevan Office should remain untouched. The OSCE Austrian Chairmanship expressed gratitude to Armenia, as hosting country of the Office, for its understanding.
The Chairman informed that a number of the OSCE participating countries expressed interest in implementing bilaterally such programmes with Armenia. The Austrian Chairmanship urged the OSCE participating countries to support the activities of the OSCE Yerevan Office, as it is important for the entire Organization.
In contrast with 56 participating states Azerbaijan objected the extension of the mandate of the OSCE Yerevan Office by finding itself in isolation.
In their statements delegations of a number of OSCE participating countries, including Russia, the United States, European Union on behalf of its member states, Canada, Switzerland, supported the activities of the OSCE Yerevan Office.